


We get there, when we get there ...

by Nerdcats (ElvenGlory)



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, F/M, Gangsters, Organized Crime, Recreational Drug Use, Unresolved Sexual Tension, all the swear words incoming, and she's sick of the combined shit of her sisters, rio is a dick, the might as well all be alcoholics, the youngest sister is a teacher, weirdly attractive gangsters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-10 00:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15279210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElvenGlory/pseuds/Nerdcats
Summary: So, I love Good Girls to bits and pieces. This will be a retelling of the story of the first season through the eyes of Charlotte, Beth’s and Annie’s younger sister. She is an elementary school teacher, who is not involved in the heist, but will be dragged into the money laundering business, because of happenstance and one very unnerving gang banger, who just finds her way too interesting to leave her alone._________________________________________The Boland’s dog waited by the door whining and Beth reached down, quietly talking in baby language to him. Charlotte couldn’t help but role her eyes at that, she always told Beth, that this was the most ridiculous habit. Her eyes still focused on the cream-colored mutt, she didn’t notice, that Beth had stopped right in the middle of her walking room and bumped into her. Beth’s groceries tumbled to the ground while her sister stood frozen solid in the middle of the room. Charlotte needed to strain her neck to look past her to see the centre of Beth’s attention. When she finally got the chance to look around her sister, she instantly understood, what probably gave Beth (and her) the scare of her life.





	We get there, when we get there ...

**Author's Note:**

> So this is me getting back to writing again. I don't even know where I want to take this story. Don't know if I want to go with the Beth/Rio pairing. I keep my options open for now.
> 
> Hope you like it!

Charlotte was trailing Beth into her house. They were just done grocery shopping – the kids were still at school. The revelation of Dean cheating on Beth called for a ‘girls day.’

She had taken a personal day to help her sister sort out the shambles of her marriage. She had never liked Dean all that much, but she had never thought he would have the balls to cheat on Beth – beautiful, kind Beth, who had wasted her life giving him four children and being the perfect homemaker.

Dean was in Charlotte’s eyes the epitome of stupid and/ or thinking with his dick, rather than with his microscopic brain. She never understood what Beth ever had liked on the douchebag football-player, but that wasn’t even the point. She knew how hurt Beth was and that made her fume with silent anger. As Beth first told her, she actually considered for a minute going to his shady car dealership just to bash his head in for good measure. Reigning herself in and making the point, that elementary school teachers don’t do such things, she had driven over the day for a good ol’ session of day-drinking and making petty revenge plans.

She knew Annie would arrive soon, probably with Ruby in tow. While she loved her middle sister, like she loved Beth – her oldest, she knew that Annie’s advice could be… well not that reasonable. She loved Ruby as much, but Ruby’s marriage was that terrible happy thing, that occasionally almost made her vomit in her mouth. Since she broke up with her last boyfriend, she just couldn’t stand the lovey-dovey way of Ruby and Stan – even as she knew that it was the only thing, which kept them sane.

  


The Boland’s dog waited by the door whining and Beth reached down, quietly talking in baby language to him. Charlotte couldn’t help but role her eyes at that, she always told Beth, that this was the most ridiculous habit. Her eyes still focused on the cream-colored mutt, she didn’t notice, that Beth had stopped right in the middle of her walking room and bumped into her. Beth’s groceries tumbled to the ground while her sister stood frozen solid in the middle of the room. Charlotte needed to strain her neck to look past her to see the centre of Beth’s attention. When she finally got the chance to look around her sister, she instantly understood, what probably gave Beth (and her) the scare of her life.

Right there in the kitchen of Beth’s suburban dream sat three – for lack of a better description – gang bangers. Holy Hell – what? How did her sister even get involved with these kinds of people?

The one with the eagle tattoo on his throat looked ridiculously amused as he told Beth plainly, that she should call her ‘lady friends’ to come have a talk. When Charlotte took a closer look, she could only assume that he was the boss. The other two looked like common goons, but she couldn’t quit shake the notion that she knew one of them. The one with the eyebrow tattoo looked at her probably as puzzled as she was, but she knew better and hid most of her frame behind her oldest sister.

When Beth turned around to make the requested phone call, she dragged Charlotte along by the arm onto the staircase.

“Beth what did you do? Please tell me, you didn’t take out a loan from those guys?” she pleaded. Beth shushed her with a motion of her hand, while she whispered in her phone, probably talking to whatever lady friends the gang banger had meant. Charlotte still wasn’t sure what was going on by the time the phone call was finished, and she probably looked the part, because Beth tried to drag her out of the front door.

“You got no part in this Charlie. You need to go, right now!” Beth’s tone was urgent, her aquamarine eyes as big as saucers, she tried to give Charlotte another push out of the front door. Before she could finish the job the goon with the eyebrow tats stood right next to her, dragging Charlotte back insight.

“Oh no, she ain’t going nowhere.” Came the drawled-out statement from eagle tattoo guy (Charlotte silently congratulated herself, for what she thought was a fitting nickname, while she was dragged back into the kitchen.) This time she stood right in front of the three guys, still not knowing, what all this was even about.

“But she has no part in whatever it is you’re after …” Beth looked like she was seconds away from crying, her eyes switching between eagle tattoo guy and Charlotte in rapid succession.

“She`s not in then?” eagle guy asked, drawing his eyebrows impossibly high up his forehead. “She’s your sister, right? No money for her?” he gave an incredulous smirk and gave Charlotte a once-over only stopping at her assets and ending at her face. She had the mind to not at once look away, all the while the gang banger stared her down.

“You loaded or what?” he smirked at her clearly awaiting an answer.

It was hard to clear her too tight throat, so Charlotte only croaked out a startled – “No.” before she fell silent again.

At that the eagle guy gave a barking laugh before giving Beth the same once-over she had given her seconds before. “Don’t want to let your little sis play, yeah?” Beth only nodded as unable to form coherent sentences as Charlotte was.

While they waited for the lady friends, who Charlotte assumed were Annie and Ruby, she gave the gang bangers a closer look. Throat tattoo looked smug as hell and somehow completely in his element, lounging on Beth’s kitchen counter tapping away on his phone a-mile-a-minute.

She also noticed that eyebrow tat was still watching her closely, like you would watch an interesting specimen in a zoo or museum. She wanted to ask him, if they knew each other, but she didn’t feel the need for unnecessary small-talk. Later – she promised herself, she could still ask him later (if you’re still alive – her consciousness helpfully supplied).

The third guy was watching Beth pace around the living room, like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Charlotte couldn’t help but tug at her sisters arm the next time she passed close to her. “Beth will you tell me, what’s going on? You’re making me nervous. Well … they do, too” Charlotte flicked her eyes to the guests.  
“Charlie – I love you, but NO – I seriously can’t do that.” Beth was shaking her head vigorously, probably giving herself whiplash. “If I had it my way you could stay out of this” her sister looked at her sadly, squeezing her shoulders.

Charlotte noticed that the men were watching – even Mr. Eagle Tattoo himself had lifted his eyes from his phone.

Than the front door opened, and Annie and Ruby stepped in, horrified looks on their faces.

 

* * *

 

From the following exchange Charlotte learned two things: Her sisters and Ruby had robbed Fine & Frugal. And the market was laundering money for the gang bangers.

Which in conclusion meant, that her sisters and Ruby had robbed the gang bangers – which unfortunately lead to the events of their day. The three women were sitting on one of Beth’s fancy chaise lounges holding each other tight, while Charlotte stood next to them holding Annie’s and Beth’s hands in a death grip. While she had nothing to do with the robbery at that, the gang bangers had told them, that as she had seen them, she was well involved in getting the money back. And if they didn’t – well they would get there, when they got there.

Eagle Tattoo guy kept babbling on about Beth’s backsplash, something about spaghetti sauce, marble and citrus, like he was on a house tour – and she could not help but notice, that he – despite his handsome face – was psychotic or plain cruel. Occasionally, he gave them a wicked grin – had done it the whole conversation – and every time it made Charlotte’s skin crawl.

When the three men took their leave without specifying their return the four women simultaneously took a deep breath of relieve – but Charlotte could not help but look at the other three and follow up with a shrill “What the fuck were you even thinking?”

Several bourbons for Beth, Annie and Ruby later, they had filled in her blanks. How they needed the money for the mortgage, medication for Sarah and a lawyer for Annie – Greg’s ass was on her list now, too. Charlotte somehow understood the dilemma – hell she was a bit mad, that she wasn’t invited. Her student loan wasn’t paying itself and she could have gotten rid of it in one fell swoop, or well NOT … considering they only had some days to pay the whole money back to the gang bangers.

She left shortly after – the girls wanted to sort it out on their own and she would not be the one to object in that matter. When she stepped on the front porch eyebrow tattoo was waiting in Beth’s favourite wooden swing chair.

“Ms. Marks.” He rumbled as she tried to make a beeline for her old Celica parking on the curb in front of the house.

“Do I know you?!” Charlotte gave him another long look. She remembered the voice for a fact, put she still couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Yeah – I’m sure you do, lady. You gotta third-grader – Maria? She ain’t looking much like her dad, but I saw you at school.” Charlotte’s jaw dropped, but before she could say anything, Mr. CORTEZ started speaking again.

“The boys call me Raza, but you can call me Carlos. Just tellin ya, don’t mess with the boss – he’ll kill you, your sisters and that mama bear of yours.” He was digging his hands inside the pockets of his jeans, bouncing on the balls of his feet – made him look more like he got caught with the hand in the cookie jar, not so much like a dangerous gang banger. “Wouldn’t want Maria to lose her favourite teach.” Carlos gave her a lopsided smile, before leaving Beth’s garden.

“Well … fuck.”

 

 

* * *

  


When she arrived home later that day she felt like scotch – straight from the bottle. She’d walk the dog first – also feeding him and the two cats first would be the more reasonable choice.

While she climbed the stairs to her apartment Charlotte, pondered the poor life choices of her sisters and Ruby – robbing a store was one thing, but even Annie should have known that the cash was way more than the expected 30 grands. Even as the three told her she shouldn’t worry – her ass was on the line, too. Carlos had said as much. She knew that her school and her apartment was in gang territory, but she never even worried about it – privilege of being an elementary school teacher. Some of the parents might have looked scary AF but she soon had learned, that gang banger or not, they all loved their children. And for her being a good teacher was the only thing that really mattered – making a difference for kids.

When she entered her apartment the first thing she noticed, was that Diego her black lab was not waiting by the door for her as per usual – her cats were nowhere to be seen too and she had the inkling that something sure as hell wasn’t right. Even though she wasn’t as long gone as on her usual school and tutoring day Diego NEVER missed her arrival waiting for pets and the jingling of his leash for his afternoon walk. The corridor was eerily silent as she toed of her boots and walked into her living area.

Her heart dropped straight down to her knees when she saw an unfamiliar pair of black sneakers on her low living room table as she rounded the corner of her short entryway. The eagle tattoo guy was fucking lounging on her couch, feet propped up on the table. Diego was sitting next to him. She noticed that the guy had his paws on her weed and tobacco stash, the wooden box carefully balanced on his knees.

“My … My… Ms. Marks. You sure you a teach?” his half smile was dangerously feral, more a snarl than a smile and she felt her blood run cold.

“He told you?” Charlotte choked out, it was hard to swallow past the growing lump in her throat.

“Nah – didn’t need to.” He fingered the weed out of the box – “Mind if I do?” he grinned again.

“What do you even want from me? I’m not even involved in your shit.” She spat, regretting it the second the words left her mouth as his gaze turned from amused to icy in a split second.

“But bitch you are – can’t do nothing about your dumbass sisters now.” He sighed, his hand came to pinch the bridge of his nose. “You know I gotta nephew at your school. Most of my boy’s kids go there, too. Would be a shame, if we had to cap you over those whack ass bitches, you call your family.”

“Don’t call them that.” Charlotte slumped to the floor, Diego walked over to her, laying his head in her lap. She absentmindedly started petting his head, hand wandering to scratch behind his ears.

“They’re not stupid, just desperate.” She looked up to find him staring intendedly at her.

“Don’t care about that, only care about the money they stole from me.” He snarled back, thumping his head on the back of her well-worn leather couch.

“Yeah I figured that much.” She scratched her head with her unoccupied hand, still wondering why he came to her home. “Wanna tell my why you’re here or are you just threatening me and smoking my weed?!” at that he laughed loud and throaty, again fixing his gaze to hers.

“What you gonna do? Kick me out?” he started building a joint from her stash occasionally glancing up through dark lashes. “That an Indica or Sativa?” he dangled a small bag from his fingers.

“The blue one is a Sativa – see the sticker? There must be one with a yellow sticker – that’s an Indica. Choose your poison, if you need to.” She waited for him to pull out both bags and sizing them up, “To answer your questions: Doesn’t sound reasonable to me. You’ll probably just shoot me over that…”

“And why would I do that?” he chose the Indica, dropping the other bag in the wooden box.

“I dunno – cause you’re a ruthless criminal?” at that he rolled his eyes.

“You see, that’s where you’re wrong, sweetheart. I’m a businessman.” He smirked at her, bringing the freshly rolled joint to his lips to lick the paper.

“Ha – fine businessman you are. Threatening housewives.” Charlotte rolled her eyes at his quip, still dreading the second she would overstep his fickle boundaries again.

“No girl. They stole from me. That’s another chapter in the book.” He brought the joint to his lips, searching for a lighter in his pockets, coming up emptyhanded.

“Mind if you took this outside? It’s not good to smoke in front of the babies…” she gave him her lighter sitting up. He huffed another laugh at that.

“Babies? You got kids?”

“No but my pets and I would mind if you smoked weed in here – you can go onto the fire escape, if you must.” At that she stood and motioned for him to follow her, leading him into her bedroom, where said fire escape was. He followed her a low chuckle on his lips.

“You propositioning to me?” the words came in a low rumble from his mouth as he stepped into the room behind her.

“And why would I do that, not 10 minutes ago you were threatening to shoot me.” Charlotte folded her arms across her chest and cocked out her hip to look at him incredulously.

“Nah – just reminding you who’s boss.” He smirked squeezing himself out of the window.

“I might need a drink – want something, too?” Charlotte didn’t even know, why she asked the thug currently sitting on the fire escape, inhaling from the joint. He let out the smoke in a long, slow exhale watching her through hooded eyes.

“What you got in mind?”

“Scotch probably…” she gave him a crooked smile.

“Ah the good stuff – yeah I take one.” He waved her away inhaling another drag of the joint.

Charlotte made her way back slowly, all the while pondering what was wrong with her life? How was it even possible to go from normal, to having a gang banger in her home in just one day? She rummaged through her cabinets, deciding to break out the ‘good stuff’ – she poured two generous glasses of the golden liquid adding a cube of ice to each. She turned back to the hallway to her bedroom, deciding that she wouldn’t blame Beth, Annie or Ruby for any of that. Hell – she would have gone with them, if she had been in on the plan. She would call Beth tomorrow helping them to figure out a way to get the money back.

When she pushed open the bedroom door with her hip, the drinks in hand, the fire escape was empty.

Eagle Tattoo guy was gone, and she decided to down both glasses on her own.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave all the kudos and comments you want!
> 
> As I'm not a native english speaker (or writer for that matter) I'm sorry for any wonky language or grammatics. I'm not good at slang either, but I'm trying hard to get it right.
> 
> I want to try posting once a week, probably on sundays.


End file.
